[5] A few days later several hundred workers rallied outside of Van Pelt Library calling for improved working conditions.
[9] The first graduate employee union in the USA was formed in 1970 at the University of Wisconsin–Madison when the Teaching Assistants Association won recognition and its first contract.
[2] A flurry of student initiated organizing activity took place at private universities in the wake of the 2000 NLRB decision.
The Penn campaign started when a diverse group of graduate students began meeting in the fall of 2000 to discuss concerns related to their employment status.
[12] A certification election was scheduled for February 26, 2003; however, the National Labor Relations Board overturned the decision to allow graduate students to unionize before the votes could be counted.
[2] After a year of increasing pressure from GET-UP and its allies failed to convince the University to drop its appeal and allow the NLRB to count the ballots cast in the certification election, the union members felt that a significant action was necessary to move the process forward.
[15] At the Spring 2004 GET-UP general membership meeting, after a half-hour debate, an 83 percent majority voted to withdraw their labor on the two days of the election's anniversary.
[15] Rather, the membership approved of the limited strike as a way of demonstrating their seriousness while still giving the University a chance to drop its appeal and negotiate.
"[2] The dissenting opinion stated that "Today's decision is woefully out of touch with contemporary academic reality", and further that "It disregards the plain language of" Section 2(3) of the National Labor Relations Act, which "defines employees so broadly that graduate students who perform services for, and under the control of, their universities are easily covered".